


(When love starts to die) It begins with a kiss

by how_to_sit_gay



Category: Ocean's 8 (2018)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst, Drug Use, F/F, Hurt No Comfort, I mean it, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2020-01-12 21:22:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18454880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/how_to_sit_gay/pseuds/how_to_sit_gay
Summary: They had started to have more fights than usual, more nights alone on the couch for either of them. A sudden restlessness had befallen Debbie, her leg twitching more often than not, her lower lip bitten and picked raw on the right side. Together with the dark circles under her eyes and her blatant refusal to talk about what was wrong, she made the perfect picture of the kind of unhappiness that seeped into the bones of everyone who dared to stand in its vicinity for too long, slowly dragging them down with it.





	(When love starts to die) It begins with a kiss

**Author's Note:**

> Let's just say I had to work through something.

 “ _Hey.”_

“ _You’re Debbie Ocean.”_

“ _And how would you know that?”_

“ _Word gets around.”_

“ _Do you believe everything people say?”_

“ _Only if I have good reason to. And if it involves pretty girls.”_

“ _Quite the charmer, aren’t you?”_

“ _I didn’t say you were included in the latter. So, let’s cut the bullshit. What do you want from me?”_

 

Lou looked at her watch and heaved a sigh. Three hours until their weekly bingo scam and she wasn’t in the mood to even think about it. On top of her on the couch, Debbie was lying peacefully with her face tucked into her neck, every exhale moving the fine blond hairs there and tickling her skin in the process, emitting the quiet snores she denied vehemently when awake.

 

One hand buried in her brown strands and the other slung around her middle, she pulled the Ocean even closer and pressed a kiss to her head. At the sudden movement, Debbie gave a low disgruntled sound but otherwise didn’t wake up. It was one of the moments of calm that had become rare over the last month.

 

They had started to have more fights than usual, more nights alone on the couch for either of them. A sudden restlessness had befallen Debbie, her leg twitching more often than not, her lower lip bitten and picked raw on the right side. Together with the dark circles under her eyes and her blatant refusal to talk about what was wrong, she made the perfect picture of the kind of unhappiness that seeped into the bones of everyone who dared to stand in its vicinity for too long, slowly dragging them down with it.

 

So really, even if the Ocean’s weight was starting to crush her, Lou wouldn’t trade this momentary peace for the world.

 

She was just about to doze off completely, when an obnoxious ringing shocked her heart awake again. Of course she was fully aware that the selection of ringtones on mobile phones wasn’t that great, but she’d definitely have to force the brunette rather sooner than later to change it, it was that awful. However it did what it was supposed to do, an annoyed groan showing that Debbie was slowly - and under great protest - coming to again. One eye cracked open and regarded the phone with hatred. Then it widened.

 

Apparently it was an important call because before Lou even had realized what was happening, the Ocean scrambled off her without any finesse, almost tearing her down the couch somewhere between reaching for the mobile and getting her legs to cooperate.

 

“What the hell?!”

 

Placing a finger in front of her own lips, Debbie motioned her to be quiet before she disappeared into the bathroom to take the call.

 

Staring at the closed door, Lou contemplated eavesdropping, yet deciding against it in the end. Sure, they weren’t supposed to have any secrets between them, but there were certain exceptions to the rule as always. Burying herself deeper into the cushions again, she decided it had to be about her birthday present, even though that day was still weeks away. There really was no other reason.

 

Five minutes later Debbie emerged from the bathroom just to run into the bedroom again, not even giving her an explanation or even a glance. Still, Lou forced herself to be patient. She’d find out what this was about soon enough.

 

When the bedroom door slammed open again with a bang, she was just about ready to throw something, feeling a headache already forming. However she was stopped by the display of Debbie striding purposefully past the sofa in one of her finer black dresses, all donned up.

 

“Don’t you think this is a bit over the top for bingo?”

 

Debbie shot her an apologetic look while fiddling with her left earring. “Sorry baby, I gotta go somewhere else.”

 

“Where? And why this get-up?”

 

“Gotta run, I’ll tell you later.”

 

She pressed a quick kiss to the Australian’s lips and almost fled out of the apartment. Again, Lou was left staring at a closed door as an uneasy feeling spread in her insides, drawing all blood from her hands and feet. Definitely about her birthday present. Hopefully.

 

Going for a change in scenery, Lou laid back again and was now staring at the ceiling. Counting the cracks however turned out to be only a short distraction and she rolled off the couch with a groan. After shaking some life back into her limbs, she made to get ready herself. Maybe she could still earn them some bucks alone - and even if not she could at least get something from that pizza place down the block of the bingo hall.

 

“ _That went extremely well.”_

“ _Don’t sound so surprised, I told you I knew what I was doing.”_

“ _Guess your reputation doesn’t own up to you.”_

“ _I could say the same thing about you.”_

“ _It was a pleasure doing business with you, Ocean.”_

“ _Likewise, Miller. Down for another con soon?”_

“ _With you? Why not.”_

“ _And one after that?”_

“ _Yeah, I can definitely see that.”_

 

A broad grin was plastered to Debbie’s face as she returned from her secret meeting. Something like relief washed over the blonde upon finally seeing that familiar glint in her eyes again, silencing the nagging feeling inside her for a moment, but before she could even ask for details, Debbie had grabbed her by the lapels of her shirt and kissed her hard enough to make her head spin.

 

Lou couldn't remember the last time she had been pushed into the bedroom with such a force, but she certainly wasn't about to complain, her own hands already tearing eagerly at Debbie's dress, as the door fell closed, both of them on the same side.

 

When the Ocean brought her to the edge again and again and again that night, kissed her deeply with her wetness still smeared around her mouth, and looked down at her with a warmth in her eyes Lou had feared to be lost, she finally, finally, dared to believe her old Debbie had returned to her.

 

“ _I hate to admit it, but…”_

“ _Oh this is gonna be good.”_

“ _...but I couldn’t have done it without you.”_

“ _I know, you’d be helpless without me.”_

“ _And less annoyed as well. Maybe I should get myself a new partner.”_

“ _As if. Breaking in a new partner is too much work at this point and you’re fucking lazy when it’s not about money.”_

“ _I resent that!”_

“ _Tell that to the dishes rotting in the sink.”_

 

However, Lou still didn't get an answer. Instead she had to watch Debbie disappear more frequently. First it was every other week, then almost every week, at last she went to bed alone multiple times a week. In exchange for the uprising loneliness the stack of due bills shrunk, the food got better - as long as she cooked herself - and the angry letters from their landlord stayed away.

 

Still, the blonde was lying awake at night, the mattress beside her cold, wishing she could buy Debbie’s presence back with all that new money.

 

They didn’t run any scams together. No more late night scheming on the couch with the Ocean’s head lying on her thigh and her fingers carding through the brown locks, no more pecks tickling the sensitive skin there when Debbie noticed her failing to keep up with her overly active mind. Even the bingo hall hadn’t seen any one of them in three months.

 

Lou had picked up a job at a bar a few blocks down to subdue her now own restlessness, to give her mind something to occupy with that wasn’t crippling doubt or insecurity. Spending more time than necessary in the empty apartment had started to make her skin itch.

 

Yet even with Debbie in it, it turned out to be empty still, if not more so, living side by side but not together.

 

When Lou barged out of the bedroom, almost late for her shift, she found Debbie on the sofa, leafing casually through a magazine. Apparently, the Ocean must’ve slunk in while she had been getting ready.

 

Immediately, she stopped dead in her tracks. Fuck being a few minutes late. “This is getting ridiculous, Debs. How long is this supposed to go on like this? When will you finally tell me what’s going on?”

 

Finally, Debbie looked up and spared her a glance, something indecipherable swirling in the brown depths. It disappeared as soon as an innocent smile formed on her lips. “Don’t you trust me?”

 

Lou slumped her shoulders in silent defeat. She said _I do_ , but the clench in her stomach screamed _I don’t know anymore_.

 

“ _You never told me about your family.”_

“ _There’s nothing to tell.”_

“ _There’s always something to tell.”_

“ _True. But there’s only one thing that actually matters now.”_

“ _That is?”_

“ _You are my family now.”_

 

And then, Debbie stayed away for days, ignoring her texts and calls, nothing hinting at her having been in their apartment while Lou was out. Fear was eating her from the inside out, nervous ticks she hadn’t done in years resurfacing.

 

In a moment of mental clarity, Lou found herself in the bathroom, covering her bloody cuticles in layers of band aids in the hope it would keep her from picking on them for a bit. At the same time her stomach growled loudly - when was the last time she had eaten anything? - she heard the front door opening and closing. She was out of the room in an instant, afraid to miss Debbie again.

 

She found the Ocean hanging up her coat as if nothing was amiss, everything business as usual. If she was being honest with herself, Lou wanted nothing more than to latch onto her and cry her relief over her unscathed return into her shoulder. But the combined force of hurt, anger, and pride painted her eyes and heart a dark and steely blue.

 

“What are you doing here?”

 

Surprised, Debbie looked up from untying her shoes. “I live here.”

 

“Really? Hasn’t felt like that for a long time.”

 

Debbie brushed past her, unfazed by her crossed arms and tightly set jaw, the tone in her voice. “Please, Lou, not this again. I’m tired.”

 

While the echo of the bedroom door closing still resounded from the walls of her skull, something hit Lou’s chest like a freight train. She was finally able to place what had bothered her every time Debbie had returned from her secret missions.

 

That smell. The smell wafting around her every single time without fail. A man’s cologne.

 

“ _You’re the best! Where have you been all my life?”_

“ _Waiting for you, it seems.”_

“ _Oh great, my best friend is a sap.”_

“ _You started it.”_

 

That night, she went out to numb the pain and insecurities the only way she remembered how without burning everything to pieces. Still, she couldn’t even blame her actions on the alcohol - she wasn’t that far gone yet - when the dark-haired woman opposite her asked her if she wanted to come home with her and she followed her out without a second thought.

 

She thought she’d be riddled with regrets when she woke up the next day, the woman’s naked back turned to her, a back that clearly wasn’t Debbie’s because there was no scar below her right shoulder blade for her to trace, yet she felt nothing but emptiness and the bad taste of her last vodka combined with the woman’s come on her tongue.

 

Upon her return to their apartment, she was immediately greeted with a scowl, Debbie cornering her behind the front door.

 

“Where were you, I’ve been worried sick!”

 

In lieu of replying, Lou first fished her phone out of her leather jacket and scrolled through her notifications. Well. “Then my phone must’ve swallowed all the calls and texts you’ve probably sent me.”

 

The muscle in Debbie’s jaw tensed, a clear sign that she felt cornered and might lash out any second. If so, the Australian felt more than ready to answer in kind. Instead, the brunette switched gears.

 

Looking Lou up and down, narrowing her eyes, she finally read her verdict. “You slept with someone else.”

 

Something flared up in Debbie's gaze as she said it, something primal and wild. If Lou had hoped for any kind of reaction, it would've maybe been sadness and hurt at the realisation, those were emotions that hinted at the existence of something that was tender and could nurture hope for them. Instead, she was met with the burning rage of anger. A deadly calm washed over her.

 

Attack had always been the best kind of defence, so she met the Ocean's eyes without wavering. “It takes one to know one, doesn't it?”

 

“Excuse me?!”

 

Debbie’s incredulous look broke the dams, all of Lou’s calm washed away just like that. “Don’t play dumb with me, Deborah. Do you think I’m really that stupid? Do you really believe I didn’t pick up on that men’s cologne that followed you whenever you came back from those secret meetings? For weeks you’ve been refusing to tell me what all this madness is about, you’re more away than here with me and you don’t tell me where you go or for how long you’re gone! I’m sick of this, Debbie, so fucking sick of coming home and not knowing where you are and if it’ll be another night without you. And even when I’m lucky, even when you decide to stop by in _our_ home, you slip in next to me smelling of someone else! Tell me what I should make of this, if it isn’t the obvious”, Lou took a deep breath. Later, she would remember this to be the moment it all went to hell completely. “And all this sudden money? Did you get yourself a sugar daddy or what? Are you that desperate for a real cock?!”

 

Everyone knew to stay out of Debbie’s way when she was angry. This however wasn’t anger, not anymore. Right now, she was furious beyond compare. Growling through clenched teeth, it was almost a hiss when she spoke up, her frame shaking subtly.

 

“You have no fucking idea what you’re talking about!”

 

A sardonic smile formed on Lou’s lips that was half a snarl, voice rising. “That’s right, and do you know why? Cos you don’t fucking tell me anything!”

 

“I’ve done this for us, so we could have a better life!” Debbie all but screamed back, matching her fury.

 

“What exactly have you done, huh? What else apart from sharing someone else’s bed?”

 

A glint of guilt flitted by her eyes that only fuelled the sick feeling twisting around Lou’s insides. “I- … He’s an art dealer, I’m posing as a buyer to push up the price.”

 

Lou let it sink in what she’d just heard. Then she heard nothing but the sound of her own heart finally shattering, the finely ground dust making it hard for her to breathe. “You’re running cons behind my back. You basically got yourself a new partner. You didn’t do shit _for us_ , Debbie, you did this for yourself. Is this what all that restlessness and unhappiness months ago was about? What we were doing wasn’t - hell, I wasn’t good enough anymore?”

 

At her last words, the Ocean faltered, her anger visible dissipating so that there was nothing left but sadness. “You’ve always been enough, please don’t ever think otherwise. It’s just that I got the feeling you weren’t up for bigger stuff, and-”

 

“No, you could’ve- should’ve talked to me and explained it half a year ago”, the blonde interrupted her coldly, “You had your chance.”

 

“C’mon, Lou, baby- What’re you doing?”

 

The Australian pushed past her, reversing their positions, cornering Debbie between herself and the door. “Get out. Go to that new partner of yours.”

 

Her eyes widening in shock, the Ocean struggled to find words. “Lou-”

 

She pushed Debbie’s coat and purse at her, voice deadly calm and steady, opening the door. “I said, get out.”

 

“Lou, please. I still love you, don’t you know that?” There was honesty in those words, raw despair oozing out between the lines and the tears slowly forming in Debbie’s eyes. All this meant nothing to her now.

 

“You got a fucking way of showing that.” With a deafening sound, Lou slammed the door shut.

 

Bangs against the door and desperate pleas crept to her ears and tried to fill up the emptiness inside her, failing miserably. Only when everything fell silent and the formerly so comforting clicking of Debbie’s heels faded away, she allowed herself to let go. Of her composure. Of the remnants of her aching heart. Of the tears that had been trying to choke her for the past months and months.

 

“ _Oh. Okay. So this happened.”_

“ _Yeah… regrets?”_

“ _Actually, no.”_

“ _Good. Then kiss me again.”_

 

She made do, someway or other. She had started taking up more shifts at the bar to cover the costs that came with living and drowning out every single thought of the empty spot next to her on the mattress. Unanswered notifications piled up on her phone, some from Tammy, a few from Danny, most of them from Debbie. Until her phone stayed silent at last.

 

Somewhere in between, Debbie had come over and picked up all her belongings while Lou’d been working. It rattled on her walls again seeing all the empty spaces, stirred up the pieces of her heart, but she made do, still.

 

She’d be lying if she said she’d never thought of begging her to return.

 

It got better in time, as everything does, the longing slowly fading until it was nothing but an afterthought of a time that seemed too good to be true, the shadows Debbie’s absence had cast onto the walls disappearing.

 

Lou was lying on the couch, zapping through the channels with a bottle of beer in her other hand without really watching, when Tammy called. She thought about ignoring it like everything else the last months, but she felt a strange pull inside herself towards the little device.

 

She didn’t even made it past a hello before Tammy blurted out the reason for her call and the phone slipped out of the Australian’s hand, clattering to the floor.

 

Art fraud.

 

Chills ran up and down her spine, her hands shaking uncontrollably on their own accord, beer spilling from the bottle, staining the carpet to her feet.

 

Six years.

 

Something clawed its way up her throat, sucking all the air from her lungs in the process.

 

Debbie had been sentenced to six years in prison for art fraud.

 

A feral scream made it past her lips as she hurled the bottle against the wall behind the TV, liquid and splinters flying everywhere. It would be the first occurrence of many more like that.

 

Over time, the content of the bottles changed first from beer to wine, then to vodka, tequila, top-shelf whiskey from the bar when she felt her demons deserved a particularly fine drink that night. Not before long and she got kicked out of the bar for being too drunk to even make it to the staff room in a straight line.

 

Locking herself inside the apartment without any reason to go outside anymore except the rare trip to the grocery store and the not so rare ones to the liquor store, Lou lost first her sense of time - with the blinds closed every waking moment was the same only with different levels of despair -, then sense of herself. The lines between the hurt in her heart, the pain in her body, and the soothing numbness of the alcohol blurred bit by bit until she didn't feel like a person anymore but like a shapeless entity floating in a void.

 

In the drunken stupor of a particularly hard night, she decided to look for that asshole that had taken Debbie away from her. She couldn’t remember how she made it to his gallery, but she found him. The look in his eyes when she confronted him, struggling to stay upright, her speech slurred from cheap gin and heart-wrenching hurt, would stay with her for a long time. Recognition, smugness, pity.

 

“You’re pathetic. No surprise she left you.”

 

“ _Can you be more melodramatic? It’s just a fever, not even a high one at that.”_

“ _Please, be kind to me, the end is nigh, I can feel it!”_

“ _You’re pathetic.”_

“ _And you’re still staying with me, so what does that make you?”_

“ _I guess I’m a bit pathetic, too.”_

 

After two hours in a back alley a block down from his gallery, lying shivering on the wet concrete, she managed to find her way back home. Albeit not alone. In her white-knuckled grip she held a small bag filled with a syringe and powders she didn’t even want to know the composition of.

 

Finally, the pain seemed to have gone forever. Until it returned with more vengeance once she came back down from her high. She shot up again, and the cycle repeated. Again and again. That was when she stopped charging her phone and watched it die slowly until the light went out for good, wishing her own would just do the same.

 

She got her wish.

 

The next time she pushed the needle through her skin, everything went blissfully black.

 

“ _I love you.”_

“ _Took you long enough to say it.”_

“ _You’re an ass.”_

“ _And you love me, so joke’s on you, really.”_

 

When Lou came back to, she wasn’t faced with the darkness she had hoped for but walls so crisp and white her eyes started burning instantly.

 

Her low whimpers at the pain burning through her body caught the attention of the person next to her, the sound of a book closing filling the air. When warm hands covered her deadly cold one on the sheets, the Australian slowly turned her head with blurry eyes. She had expected nothing, but she was still disappointed to find a blond head shining through the mist in her vision instead of brunette.

 

“Where am I?” Lou had to wince at the sound of her own voice and the rawness of her throat.

 

However, Tammy didn't seem to be fazed much and just put a straw to her cracked lips. “In a rehab center. You were halfway dead from alcohol poisoning and probably some other shit, too. They had to pump out your stomach and give you whatnot. I signed you in for stationary treatment, the whole shebang.”

 

Releasing the straw, she tried to protest as vehemently as her voice would allow, her words laced with the same bitterness she tasted in her mouth. “I don’t need you to fuss over me and make this bigger as it is. I’m doing fine on my own.”

 

Tammy gave her the kindest cut-the-bullshit-look. “Yeah, I can see that.”

 

“I can’t afford this, Tammy”, Lou tried again.

 

“You don’t need to. Don’t worry about it”, the younger woman replied simply while putting away the cup and patting Lou’s hand.

 

“Tammy. Who is paying for this?”

 

A long beat of silence stretched out between them until she finally caved under Lou’s hard gaze. “Danny.”

 

The impulse to rip the IV from her body was impossibly strong. However, her limbs felt like there were made of lead, rendering her immobile. She resulted to growling her distaste. “I don’t need his pity.”

 

The younger woman gently took her hand and pried apart the clenched fist she had formed. “This isn’t pity and you know it. To him, you’re still family, he still cares for you. Honestly, you won’t believe how livid he was when I told him what happened. Took me a lot to convince him not to abandon whatever super secret mission he is on right now.”

 

Lou mulled over this for a long while. The sensation of feelings returning to her beaten body made her clench her teeth, wetness springing to her eyes in pain and frustration, the longing for a drink washing away almost every thought of reason. “I don’t think I can do this, Tam-Tam”, she finally conceded, her voice barely above a whisper.

 

“You bet you can”, Tammy interjected fiercely, “I’m here. And Danny volunteered to be there whenever you need to punch someone in the face - or he’ll send Rusty.”

 

A wet laugh escaped her at that. “Fucking Oceans, they’re the most stupid idiots ever.”

 

“It definitely runs in the family.”

 

“ _What’s wrong? I’ve never seen you that pale.”_

“ _My dad died.”_

“ _Shit.”_

“ _I- I just don’t know what to do, I-”_

“ _Shh, babe, we’ll get through this, alright?”_

 

Nothing about what came after was pretty or made for the big screen. No one swept in to save her from herself, no great revelation or epiphany took place that changed her approach to life and in the process cured the addiction she had found herself in.

 

Tammy held her hair every time she threw up from withdrawal and held her hand when she didn’t. Rehab was a shit show Lou never wanted to return to ever again. In her joy of being released, she allowed herself a celebratory beer and found herself in the same white room again the next morning, tearing at the bed sheets in frustration until she collapsed, tears running from the corners of her eyes, humiliated by herself beyond compare.

 

The next time Lou got out, she was dead set on proving the voices in her head wrong. It took some pulling of strings and forging of documents, but in the end she stood in her very own club. Watering down vodka in the back didn’t get her any approval from Tammy, still she pulled through with it. This was her way of proving to herself that she was in control now.

 

The day Danny died, Lou was ready to throw it all away again, the magnetic pull of the many bottles just seemed too strong. Only the feeling of the sobriety chip she had received just a week ago for her one year anniversary burning through her back pocket kept her grounded.

 

The same week, she got the chemical formula for ethanol tattooed. A silent promise to herself, to Danny, to Tammy, to everyone who had stood with her, that she would never let any drug get under her skin other way than that again.

 

“ _I need you.”_

“ _Again? Someone’s insatiable tonight.”_

“ _Just shut up and touch me.”_

 

If things could go up in flames by sheer force of will, the phone would’ve combusted seconds ago, Lou was staring at it that hard. It might’ve been an unknown number, but by the way her stomach had churned and an icy chill had spread over her whole body as soon as she’d read the message, she knew exactly whom it belonged to.

 

Unknown [11:46 pm]: Can you get me a credit line?

 

With a snarl, the blonde slammed the phone on the desk and started pacing her office. She didn’t even wonder how Debbie had managed to text her with her getting a new phone number years ago. A familiar tug on her heartstrings demanded attention, trying to rein her in, to pull her back in. Feelings she was sure to have kicked out - or at least buried deep deep _deep_ \- slowly trickled back into her system like a swarm of parasites, eating away at her self-control bit by bit.

 

Lou hadn’t even realised she’d been fiddling with the sobriety chip in her suit pocket until she wanted to grab the phone again (and give in) with the same hand. She let her arm sink back to her side again.

 

No. No, she wouldn’t just slide back into the past without putting up a fight. She wouldn’t be at the Ocean’s beck and call after more than six years of silence. After what had happened before that. Not after crashing and fighting her way back up again.

 

In a knee-jerk reaction, she took the SIM card out of the phone and cut it in half with her pocket knife, flicking the pieces into the trash can. Some of the tension in her shoulders bled out of her at the action and she forced her lungs to work properly again. Lou knew this was only a temporary solution, if Debbie had managed to get her new number while being locked up, she would probably manage to get to her one way or another anyway if she really wanted to, yet it eased her mind for the time being.

 

If she was to go down, she wouldn’t do it easily. Unfortunately, the pull at her heart never really ceased after that.

 

 

Then, one day not too much later, Tammy told her the rumours about Debbie’s impending early release. Usually, Lou would’ve teased her about her partaking in the grapevine when she still claimed vehemently to have left this life behind for good, but this time she just opted for thanking her and ending the call, voice terse, her knuckles a ghostly white around the phone.

 

She took a deep breath. Inhale. Exhale. Concentrate on your surroundings, don’t let intrusive thoughts get the upper hand.

 

Forcing a sense of purpose into herself, she unearthed the mental checklist she had created after Debbie’s last text message and went to work.

 

After that evening’s staff meeting, Lou packed her bags. Patting the door frame of her loft’s entrance in a silent goodbye, she turned off the lights behind her and saddled her bike. She had planned to take her California trip under different and better circumstances, with a new bike and more money, however, now was a good time as any, she figured.

 

She had run from her past once, she could do it again. And she would keep her heart safely with her in her saddlebag.

 

“ _Do you think this will ever stop?”_

“ _I don’t see us ever stopping running cons, you’re insatiable.”_

“ _That’s not what I meant.”_

“ _Then what?”_

“ _Us. Will we ever stop being like this?”_

“ _Idiots high on love and criminal activity? Why, are you having doubts?”_

“ _Never.”_

“ _Then where’s this coming from?”_

“ _Dunno, just in a philosophical mood I guess.”_

“ _If you say so. Also, bold of you to assume I’d ever let your sorry philosophical ass go.”_

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> ...How sorry do I have to be?


End file.
